Would you have surgery at hands of a robot?

Every day, we happily entrust more of our lives to automated machines at home and in our cities. But you could be forgiven for blanching at the prospect of a four-armed robot bearing over you, scalpel glinting.

But fear not, a human, and a highly-trained one at that, is at the controls of the da Vinci robotic surgical system.

"I think it's very important to explain robotic surgery," says David Rosa from da Vinci creators, Intuitive Surgical.

"The robot doesn't do anything on its own. Every movement, all of its controls are controlled by a surgeon who sits at a console."

The company's tele-operated robots have performed more than 1.5 million operations from abdominal general surgery and gynaecology procedures to thoracic and lung operations.